Passing of a boating pioneer

Bob Hewes, 86, builder of the first production flats boat,

Bob Hewes wasn't content to just build and sell boats. He was dedicated to making boats run as well as they possibly could.

That dedication and his inventiveness resulted in the first production flats boat the Hewes Bonefisher, more than 40 years ago.

"This is one of the things I really liked about the guy, he loved to play with boats and try to make them run better, whether they were his or the ones he was selling," Bob Stearns said of Hewes, 86, of Miami Shores, who died Sunday of bone cancer.

"He and I spent days and days tinkering with engines and propellers, stuff like that, only to see if he could make the performance better. He was willing to go out there and spend hours and hours."

As Stearns explained, that was before GPS existed to measure speeds. Back then, he and Hewes would run a boat over a measured course and time it with a stopwatch.

"It was a time-consuming thing," said Stearns, a magazine outdoors writer. "I learned things that carried me through all those years as boating editor of Florida Sportsman, Outdoor Life and Field & Stream."

Hewes was born into the boat business. His family had a store on the Miami River and later opened Bob Hewes Boats, which is now owned by Hewes' son-in-law Jim Wiborg in North Miami.

The Hewes family was into water skiing and Hewes designed a ski boat of his own to meet his needs. Then the great fly fisherman Lefty Kreh, who ran Miami's MET fishing tournament, suggested to Hewes that he build a fishing boat.

Stearns met Hewes in the early 1960s when he brought a boat that he had set up as a rudimentary flats skiff into Hewes' dealership for an engine. That sparked Hewes' imagination and he showed Stearns his Wildcat ski boat, which had a good-running hull but was not a fishing boat by any means.

With Stearns' input, Hewes modified the boat, adding baitwells to the transom, widening the gunwales and putting in a center console and forward and aft casting decks. In 1968 Hewes made his first prototype, which Kreh got. Soon after, Stearns got the first production boat, which was made of fiberglass with some wood.

"He was an innovator," Stearns said. "He set the standards for a production flats boat."

Over the next 20 years, Hewes updated his boats, moving the baitwells inside, adding trim tabs and building a poling platform suggested by Biscayne Bay flats guide Bill Curtis. Hewes also made the first Kevlar flats boat. Around 1988, he sold his boat building business to Maverick Boat Company.

Hewes is survived by his wife, Ida. Wednesday would have been their 64th wedding anniversary. He is also survived by daughters Debbie Feeger (Joel) and Lorrie Wiborg (Jim); grandchildren Kim Davis, Jennifer Ginsberg (Rob) and Krissy, Amy and Brian Wiborg; and three great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Miami Shores Presbyterian Church, 602 Northeast 96th St. A reception will follow in the church's fellowship hall. Instead of flowers, the family requests donations be sent to the Heidi Hewes Chapter of the Women's Cancer Association at the University of Miami (wcaofum.org), c/o Bill Tenney, 1183 NE 99th St., Miami Shores, FL 33138.